


Christmas Aboard the Tempest

by lyriumlovesong



Series: Stardust [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Christmas, Cultural Differences, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Gifts, Pre-Relationship, Secret Santa, The Tempest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-17 09:51:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13074369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyriumlovesong/pseuds/lyriumlovesong
Summary: Aisling Ryder wants to bring a small taste of Earthly tradition to the Tempest crew. But has someone spiked her eggnog, or is there more than just holiday cheer in the air?





	1. One Christmas, Please

The moment Jaal walked into the room, she felt it.

And not in a hackneyed, trashy-romance-novel kind of way. She could literally _feel_  it. The air changed, and she felt a slight tingle underneath her skin, in the same way that a millisecond before it happens, your body can anticipate an electric shock from walking across a carpet and touching a metal doorknob.  
  
_Carpet_ . Now, _there_ was something she hadn’t thought about in six hundred years. Aisling glanced down at the squishy rubberized pad underneath her feet and wondered if carpets still existed back in the Milky Way.  
  
The tingle beneath her skin intensified as he approaced, so subtly as to almost be indetectable.  
  
_Almost_.  
  
She’d been around him enough by now that she was used to this biological response. The swooping feeling in her stomach that accompanied it, however… well, _that_ was straight out of the trashy romance novel.  
  
“Pathfinder,” he said, inclining his head ever so slightly. The deep baritone of his voice always reminded her of someone, a celebrity from old movies she’d watched back home in the Milky Way. She could never quite put her finger on it.  
  
“Jaal,” she replied, straightening up and giving him a small smile.  
  
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything important?” he asked, gesturing at the console where she’d been typing.  
  
“Not important, no.” She gave a nonchalant wave of her hand. “Just making a list.”  
  
“Oh? What sort of list? Perhaps I can be of help.”  
  
“A Christmas list,” she replied, turning slightly to glance at the screen.  
  
“I… definitely _cannot_ be of help. What is a ‘ _Criss Miss_ ?’ How many of them do we need? Perhaps I can help acquire them.”  
  
Aisling suppressed a laugh, imagining him going up to a merchant and firmly asking for _“One Criss Miss, please!”_ His cheerful visage faltered slightly as he noticed her expression.  
  
“I’ve said something foolish again.”  
  
“No!” she exclaimed, shaking her head and waving her hands emphatically. “No, not at all! It’s just… You can’t buy it in a market. Christmas is more of a _when_ than a _what_.”  
  
“A what?”  
  
“A _when_.”  
  
Jaal cocked his head, looking more confused than ever. “I don’t follow.”  
  
“It’s a day. A holiday.”  
  
“Hol-i-day?” Jaal repeated, over-enunciating each syllable.  
  
“A special day of celebration,” she explained. “It was very big on Earth. Lots of humans celebrate it.”  
  
“And what does one do on _Criss Miss_?” he asked, still pronouncing it as though it was two separate words.  
  
“Well, we hang colored lights, and we bring home a tree to decorate. And we eat too much, and we give one another presents.”  
  
“You… bring home a tree?”

“Yes. You put it in your main room in your house and you cover it in glass ornaments and lights.”  
  
“So you _plant_ it inside your _dwelling_?”  
  
“Well, no. You cut it down and bring it inside and keep it in water for a few days. And then when it dies--”  
  
“You just allow it to _die_?” Jaal looked appalled. “How many people harvest these trees for _Criss Miss_?”  
  
“Oh, thousands,” she replied. “Hundreds of thousands. Millions, probably. Some were grown on Earth just to be used for Christmas.”  
  
“But don’t trees provide safe, breathable air on your home world? I thought I read that in a Nexus brief.”  
  
“Well... yes,” Aisling said slowly.  
  
“But you killed _millions_ of them, just to decorate for one day?”  
  
Aisling pursed her lips. When you put it in perspective, it did seem a bit ridiculous.  
  
“Some people have artificial ones,” she said, shrugging. “Anyway, the tree isn’t the main thing.”  
  
“Ah,” said Jaal, nodding as though he understood. “No, of course not.”  
  
There was an awkward pause.  
  
“What… _is_ the main thing?” he asked.  
  
“Well,” she said, “it’s about _giving_. And helping one another. And being with people who you... who you care about.”  
  
She glanced at his eyes. He was looking away, toward the console.  
  
“I see,” said Jaal, looking slightly more approving. “That _is_ certainly cause for celebration. So your list…?”  
  
“It’s gifts,” she replied. “It’ll be Christmas in a couple of weeks, so I wanted to give everyone a little something. I thought about arranging a Secret Santa exchange, but--”  
  
“A secret _sand_ exchange?” He looked as though this was the most ludicrous thing he'd ever heard. "Why would you exchange _sand_? Is it symbolic?"  
  
“ _Santa_. He’s a man who dresses in a red suit and flies all over the world on Christmas Eve to deliver presents to human children.”  
  
“All over a planet in one night?” marveled Jaal. “He must have a very large, very _fast_ spacecraft.”  
  
Aisling smirked, unable to help herself. “No ship. Just a sleigh, pulled by reindeer.”  
  
Jaal looked as though he was trying to decide whether to ask what a sleigh and reindeer were, but seemed to decide better of it.  
  
“I still don’t quite understand from this context what a ‘secret Santa exchange’ would mean,” he said, giving her the apologetic look he sometimes adopted when he felt like he was asking her to answer too many questions.  
  
“Well, each of us would draw a name out of a hat, and that would be the person we would give a gift to.”  
  
“But that sounds delightful!” he said, his expression brightening. “I love giving gifts!”  
  
“Yes,” she replied, nodding with a grin. “I know you do. Cora still talks about your poem.”

“Poems make _excellent_ gifts,” he answered, a sage sort of expression on his face. “And besides, then you wouldn’t have to make a whole list, and everyone gets to participate and learn a little about your human culture. I think it’s a splendid idea!”  
  
“Oh,” Aisling said, glancing back at her mostly blank list of names. All she’d come up with anyway was a new set of cards and chips for Gil and some high-end ryncol for Drack. “Well, if you think everyone would enjoy it, all right then. I’ll get it organized.”  
  
Jaal nodded, looking quite pleased and giving her a warm smile that always made her feel like the bottom of the ship had suddenly dropped out from under her and she was free-falling out into space.  
  
“Was there, um… something you wanted?” she asked. Jaal looked a bit surprised.  
  
“Well, yes. To talk to you, of course.”  
  
“Oh,” she replied. Another short pause. “...What about?”  
  
“I didn’t have anything in mind when I approached you. I guess I didn’t really care. But it ended up being about _Criss Miss_ , I suppose.”  
  
“So you just… wanted to _talk_.”  
  
“Yes. To you. Specifically.”  
  
“But not about anything in particular?”  
  
“No,” said Jaal, giving her The Smile again. “Not about anything in particular. I should leave you to your work now, though. I promised my mothers I would write this week.”  
  
He turned to walk away, letting his gaze linger on her for a fraction of a second longer than one usually would. And in spite of his sometimes awkward demeanor when they were together, Aisling couldn't help but wonder if the Angaran didn't know  _precisely_ what he was doing.


	2. Drawing Names

Aisling truly didn’t expect her Secret Santa idea to be such a hit, but Jaal was right. Everyone was on board, with the human crewmembers all eager to pitch in and make Christmas on the Tempest something truly special.

After heavy persuasion, Kallo agreed to put the ship on autopilot so the whole crew could meet to discuss specifics.  
  
“We should put up some decorations,” Cora suggested. “Obviously we can’t do a tree--”  Jaal arched an eyebrow at Aisling, who managed to stifle a grin-- “but I bet we can get something together to make the ship look festive.”  
  
“I bet I have some spare parts and scraps that would make decent ornaments if we modify them a bit,” offered Gil.  
  
“I wonder if someone on the Nexus could tell us where we could hunt down some traditional Christmas treats,” said Liam. “I would _kill_ for some of my mum’s gingerbread.”  
  
“I bet I could bake some!” offered Suvi. Suddenly, the whole crew was talking at once.  
  
“Oh, don’t put yourself out!”  
  
“Yeah, that sounds like so much _work_!”  
  
“And you have all that researching to… research.”  
  
“Why don’t I take responsibility for procuring the food,” said Liam kindly, giving Suvi’s shoulder a gentle pat. “You can cover drinks.”  
  
“Oh. Well… okay,” said Suvi with a shrug. “I do know how to make hot buttered rum.”  
  
“Sounds great!” Aisling replied, making a note on her datapad. “So, Cora and Gil have got decoration duty, Liam’s got food, and Suvi will get us all nicely tipsy. I’ll make sure we have some festive music. Now for the gift exchange.”  
  
She pulled a handful of small slips of paper off the table and began handing one to each of her crew.

“I want everyone to write down their name along with a few ideas to help your Secret Santa think of something you might like. You can put down things like hobbies, your favorite color, foods or drinks you enjoy. Things like that. We’re setting a $50 credit limit on this, so no going over that. Handmade is also fine, just make sure whatever you’re making is compatible with the species you’re giving it to. We all remember what happened when Peebee got ahold of those raisins.”  
  
“The swelling eventually went down,” said Peebee with a shrug.

“And it taught you a valuable lesson about _messing with other people's snacks_ ,” Gil remarked, giving her a reproachful look.

“Still,” Lexi said, “I’d rather not have anyone end up on the business end of a syringe.”

“Point of order.” Kallo held up one finger. “What if we end up drawing someone we… That is, someone who’s difficult to--”  
  
“If you draw _my_ name, just put it back,” Gil said, rolling his eyes. Kallo turned to him with a glare, looking flustered.

“Who said anything about-- what makes you think that was about _you_? The whole of Andromeda doesn’t revolve around _Gil Brodie_ , despite what you might think.”  
  
Gil opened his mouth again, but Aisling cut across.  
  
“Whoa, okay. We’re not going to sit here and bicker about a hypothetical situation. And you do _not_ get to put names back, unless you draw yourself. Christmas is about coming together despite our differences and doing something nice for each other. If you can’t do that, _regardless_ of whose name you draw, don’t participate. Got it?”  
  
Kallo sat on his hands and mumbled his assent as Gil crossed his arms over his chest, looking particularly annoyed.  
  
“Now, once you’ve got them filled out, chuck your slips of paper into this bowl and we’ll all go around and draw them out.”  
  
Aisling watched as the crew bent over their papers, filling in their info. She looked down at her own, printing her name at the top in neat letters.  
  
What _did_  she want for Christmas?  
  
She didn't really have time for hobbies. The closest she came to that was her pet hamster, Mixtape.  
  
_Gift ideas: New habitat for Mixtape. He would probably like something with tubes and a wheel. Favorite color is turquoise. I like bourbon whisky, old Earth music, model ships, and scarves._  
  
She folded the slip of paper in half and added it to the bowl with the growing pile. When everyone was done, she gave the bowl a toss and passed it around, taking the last slip of paper at the bottom for herself.  
  
“Now remember,” she said, slipping the sheet of paper into her pocket without looking at it, “It’s supposed to be a secret. Don’t go telling everyone on the ship who you’ve got. We all know that a juicy secret with some people on this ship is about as safe as a purse full of credits in a Kadara bar, so keep it to yourself.”  
  
Aisling could tell this was going to be tricky. She’d played enough cards with them all to know who could keep things under wraps and who couldn't. Vetra was already shooting Liam a glance every few seconds and trying unsuccessfully to keep her face vague. Gil was right--the Turian thought her poker face was much better than it actually was.  
  
“Head for the Nexus, Kallo,” she said as she turned to head back to her quarters. “We’ve got some shopping to do.”  
  
The crew dispersed, and she headed back to her own room, pulling the slip of paper back out. As soon as her door closed behind her, she opened it.  
  
A mixture of dread and a thrill of excitement washed over her as she read the name scratched in pencil at the top.  
  
_Jaal Ama Darav._


	3. Present Tense

“I didn’t think we were supposed to tell anyone who we drew. And anyway, what makes you think _I_ know what to get Jaal for Christmas?”  
  
Liam was sitting on his stained old couch with his foot propped on a cargo crate, cleaning a disassembled pistol.  
  
“You’re his best friend on the ship,” Aisling said, shrugging. “If anyone knows what he’d like, I figured it would be you.”  
  
“See, and I figured it would be _you_ ,” he replied, squinting one eye as he peered down the open barrel of the gun. “You two have been talking an awful lot. Seems like you’re getting pretty close.”  
  
“I mean, yeah, I guess... I like him. I’m just not sure how _he_ feels about it. I mean, he flirts, but… who knows.”

Liam looked up at her with a smirk.  
  
“Based on how often he mentions you and all the questions he’s been asking about human women, it’s probably safe to assume he’s interested.”  
  
Aisling felt a hot flush creep up her cheeks. Inwardly, her heart was doing somersaults, but she tried not to seem too gleeful at this news. Not in front of Liam.  
  
“You could probably give him your used protein bar wrappers and he’d love them,” he was saying, using a finger to poke a rag down into the crevices of his pistol. There was a touch of something strange in his voice. Irritation? Or something like envy?  
  
“Liam.”  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
Aisling sat on the arm of the couch, hands in her lap.  
  
“Is this… _weird_ for you?”  
  
“Is what weird?” he asked, concentrating even harder on his pistol and avoiding her eyes.  
  
“Me and Jaal. I mean, you guys are good friends, and you and I… well, there’s a little bit of history there. Is it awkward for you?”  
  
Liam set the pistol down for the first time and looked up at her, his face unreadable.  
  
“It was one night, Ryder. And I meant what I said. I’m not going to get weird and clingy about it. It was before you met Jaal. And you two are obviously into each other. I care about you. About _both_ of you. If you make each other happy, go for it.”  
  
“I just don’t want to put you in an uncomfortable position.”  
  
“I promise, I’m fine,” Liam said earnestly. She nodded.  
  
“Okay.”  
  
“Just show up naked in his bunk with a bow around your waist,” he suggested, picking the gun up again. “That would be a good present.”  
  
He gave her a look that plainly said  _Hey, I would know_. They both chuckled awkwardly.  
  
“I don’t think we’re quite there yet,” she said, tugging on her ear in a mannerism Liam immediately recognized. She was uncomfortable.  
  
“Okay,” he said, changing track, “What about some of that fancy Angaran fruit they all seem to love so much?  
  
“Elmohk? Ehhh… ” She made a face, clearly unconvinced.  
  
“Hey, what could possibly be more human than giving someone overpriced fruit for Christmas?”  
  
Aisling laughed, and Liam was pleased to see that she seemed relaxed again. He grinned at the sound. He'd always liked her laugh--light and giggly, and infectious when she really got going.

“Ugh, I still can’t believe I drew _him_ , of all people,” she said, closing her eyes and shaking her head.  
  
“Well, you were going to get everyone presents, right?” asked Liam.  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“So you’d have had to figure this out anyway.”  
  
“Yeah, but it wasn’t going to be this huge deal. I could’ve gotten away with elmohk fruit if I was just giving everyone something small. He’s going to open this in front of everybody. So it has to be good, but can’t be anything too personal. This just complicates it so much.”

“I think maybe you’re making it more complicated than it needs to be,” he replied, shrugging. “You’re a thoughtful person. Whatever you come up with will be perfect because it came from you, and he cares about you.”

“Maybe.”  
  
She was still unsure. Sometimes Liam wondered how someone like her could have so little confidence.  
  
“We should be docking at the Nexus soon,” she said, getting up from the arm of the couch. “Made any progress tracking down food options?”  
  
“I’ve made some contacts,” he answered. “Got some leads.”

Aisling laughed again.  
  
“You make it sound like an important Initiative mission.”  
  
“Hey, it was given to me by the Pathfinder herself,” he said, a bright smile on his face. “Can’t go letting her down, can I?”  
  
She reciprocated his smile and turned to leave.

“I’ll talk to you later, Liam.”  
  
“I know it,” he said, watching her leave.  
  
_It’s fine_ , he thought to himself as she rounded the doorframe and walked out of sight. _You’re fine_.

 

 _Let her go_.

 

*          *          *          *          *

 

Aisling flumped into her bed dramatically, still fretting over Jaal's present.

 _What on earth am I supposed to get him?_  
  
She smiled in spite of her frustration, finding a small spot of humor in the idiom now that she was millions of light years away from Earth. What in _Andromeda_ was she supposed to get him?

A loud squeak issued from the cage on her desk, and she sat up, leaning on one elbow and looking at the hamster.  
  
"You got any ideas, Mixtape?"  
  
The little creature squeaked again, pressing his tiny hands against the glass and peering at her.  
  
And suddenly, she knew exactly what to do.


	4. Deck the Halls

To Aisling’s surprise, the Nexus was uncharacteristically busy when they arrived. It seemed she hadn’t been the only human wanting to spread a little holiday cheer. Several merchants were selling things that were, without a doubt, only there for Christmas. She squealed with delight when she found a vendor selling eggnog.  
  
“I dunno,” said Cora as Aisling eagerly paid for a bottle. “I side-eye those lab grown eggs pretty hard.”  
  
“They are genetically indistinguishable from organically occuring eggs,” Aisling replied, cradling the metal bottle like it was a newborn baby. “And anyway, I haven’t had eggnog in 633 years. It could be made from wild adhi eggs and I wouldn’t care.”  
  
Cora laughed and shrugged.  
  
“Suit yourself.”  
  
Aisling turned to leave. “I’m going to go check out some other vendors. You coming?”  
  
Cora had glanced back at the merchant’s wares and looked up at Aisling.  
  
“Actually, no. I see a... thing. That I might need to get for... a person. Covert ops, you know.”  
  
“Oh,” Aisling said, shrugging. “Well, I can wait for you if you want.”  
  
“No, no,” Cora answered, giving her a “shoo” motion with her hands. “You move along.”  
  
Smirking, Aisling gave her a look and walked away, glancing back over her shoulder. She thought perhaps she had just found out who her Secret Santa was.  
  
She walked around the station, window shopping as she passed other merchants. After a few minutes, she caught sight of Suvi conversing with a tall Turian vendor and walked up, smiling cheerfully.  
  
“Hey!” Aisling said, tapping her on the shoulder. Suvi whipped around.  
  
“Pathfinder Ryder!” she exclaimed, hastily hiding something behind her back. “What… what are _you_ doing here?”  
  
“Uhh, we landed here on the same ship.”  
  
“Right,” Suvi replied, laughing nervously. “Of course. Are you, erm… Christmas shopping?”  
  
The merchant was looking a touch impatient, but slightly amused all the same.  
  
“Yep!” said Aisling brightly, holding up her bottle. “Found some egg nog! Made with real nog.”  
  
Suvi gave a short, forced laugh at the joke, then glanced over her shoulder.  
  
“Well, I’m just in the middle of a transaction here, so… I should probably finish up.”  
  
“Okay,” Aisling said, giving her a suspicious smile. “I’ll let you get back to it. Let me know how the Christmas booze mission goes.”  
  
Suvi gave her a salute with one hand, still holding the other behind her.  
  
“Right-o, Pathfinder.”  
  
Aisling turned and walked off, chuckling to herself. Okay, so maybe Cora _wasn’t_ her Secret Santa, after all.  
  
Across the marketplace, she spotted Drack talking quietly to another vendor. She began walking toward him, but he looked up and waved impatiently at her.  
  
“Buzz off, Pathfinder,” he shoulted gruffly. “Official Christmas business.”  
  
She raised an eyebrow. Cora, Suvi, and Drack couldn’t _all_ have drawn her name. What was up with everybody today? Either they had all taken her oath of secrecy very seriously indeed, or something fishy was going on. She headed for the docking bay, various suspicions about their behavior nagging at her as she strolled.  
  
Back on board the Tempest, Gil was busy hanging shiny metal ornaments from the ceiling of the galley. He’d polished bolts, washers, and other pieces of scrap to a high shine, bending and cutting some of them into festive shapes. He’d even managed to make a few jingle bells out of scrap metal and ball bearings.  
  
“Wow!” said Aisling, looking around in appreciation. “You really did a great job in here!”  
  
He stepped down from a stepladder where he’d been using what looked like a length of dental floss to tie up a painted metal rod bent into a candy cane shape.  
  
“Thanks,” he said. “The jingle bells were my idea. Cora helped with the candy canes. And Jaal is working on his own decorations over there.”  
  
Aisling turned to the corner where he was gesturing. Jaal looked up from behind a long red and green paper chain he was piecing together with clear tape. He smiled cheerfully at her, holding it up between his hands.  
  
“Do you like it?” he asked. “Liam showed me how.”  
  
Aisling grinned back.  
  
“It’s perfect! Want to learn how to make a paper snowflake next?”

 

*          *          *          *          *

By the time everyone began to return an hour or so later, Jaal and Aisling had taped up dozens of paper snowflakes around the ship, and the rest of the rooms had been adorned with Gil and Cora’s hanging metal ornaments. The crew came in one by one, holding nondescript boxes and bags full of their Christmas purchases and trying to sneak them to various hiding places around the ship. As everyone settled in, Liam approached her with a couple of lumpy cloth sacks full of sundry food items.

“Got everything we need for Christmas dinner! Real potatoes from hydroponics! And some lab-grown ham. And I got everything I need to make my mum’s gingerbread!”  
  
“That sounds delicious,” said Aisling, imagining having a real holiday feast for the first time in years. Cloned or not, the idea of a plate full of salty cured ham made her mouth water.  
  
“What about you?” he asked in an undertone. “Did you solve your dilemma?”  
  
“I think so,” she replied, nodding her head. “I just hope he likes it.”  
  
“Like I said, if it’s from you, I doubt he’ll care what it is.”  
  
Kallo’s voice interrupted them over the ship’s intercom, giving them a fifteen minute warning before takeoff.  
  
“I better go stash this lot,” Liam told her, holding up the bags. “See you in a bit?’  
  
He bustled off to the galley, and Freya left to go strap in for the ship’s ascent into orbit. She was pleased to see how excited everyone was over the upcoming celebrations.

Christmas hadn’t been joyful for her for a very, very long time. As a child, her mother had always made sure the holidays were a special time, going out of her way to establish and maintain family traditions with her husband and the twins. After she had succumbed to cancer, however, Aisling’s father had no interest in the festivities they had all cherished together for so many years. Perhaps it was too painful. Perhaps he had poured so much into his work with the Initiative that he simply didn’t have the energy for such frivolity. Whatever the case, Christmas had seemed to die with Ellen Ryder, and Aisling hadn’t been sure she’d ever find much happiness in it again.

Now, seeing everyone sneak around getting presents and working together to make the holiday bright for one another, she realized that maybe she’d given up a little too soon on the simple power of celebrating with family. She smiled to herself as she fastened her harness for liftoff, that word sounding again in her mind as she thought of her crew.

 _That's exactly what we are,_  she thought. 

_Family._


	5. The Perfect Present

Somehow, despite shaking hands and a stomach that felt like it was full of angry bees, Aisling managed to get Jaal’s present wrapped. She frowned at it, scrutinizing the plain brown paper and the simple piece of red twine she had wrapped around it. Festive wrappings were in short supply in Andromeda. It looked lumpy and awkward, but it would have to do.  
  
She could hear Liam over the comm, announcing that the crew were gathering in the meeting room for food and festivities. Tucking the little package under her arm, she stood from her desk and swallowed hard.

 _Here goes nothing_.  
  
When she walked into the meeting room, half the crew had arrived already, and Liam and Cora were two verses into “Jingle Bells” as they dished up plates of food. Liam had really gone all out, with ham and a huge mountain of mashed potatoes for everyone, plus some greens and hot rolls. She could smell the spicy-sweet aroma of gingerbread, as well, and Suvi was ladling mulled wine and hot buttered rum into mugs for whoever wanted it.  
  
Aisling smiled as she cradled her warm cup of rum in her hands, looking down at the Andromeda Initiative branding stamped onto the ceramic.

 _This is what it's all about_ , she mused. _Going halfway across the universe, but still finding home_.

There was a hologram of a brightly decorated Christmas tree being projected onto a side table, and Aisling set Jaal’s little paper-covered bundle underneath it with the rest of the crew's presents.  
  
Once everyone had arrived, they all sat down to eat, exchanging stories of their various holiday traditions on different worlds. Most of the Krogan traditions seemed to revolve around how much a person could drink before passing out, and Drack did some very lively re-enactments for the crew. Lexi and Peebee talked at length about Janiris, a holiday with which most of the Milky Way crew were familiar, and Jaal told them of a manta migration festival on Havarl where they celebrated the magnificent flying creatures that soared in the skies above his home planet.  
  
“How did _Criss Miss_ begin?” he asked, looking at his human friends. They all exchanged amused but hesitant looks.  
  
“That’s kind of a long and complicated story,” said Cora.  
  
“It’s sort of a mish-mash of different traditions,” Liam explained around a mouthful of greens. “It’s ostensibly a Christian holiday, but it’s, um... _evolved_.”  
  
“Is this 'Santa Claus' a religious figure?” asked Jaal. “Suvi told me he is a saint.”  
  
“Well,” Aisling said, setting down her fork, “Yes… and no. He started out as Saint Nicholas, but then he sort of just became a fat guy in a red suit who brings you toys once a year.”  
  
“Like Cora said, it’s complicated,” Suvi said with a smile, patting Jaal’s hand. “Way too much to explain for one dinner.”  
  
Jaal looked slightly disappointed, but Suvi promised to tell him the whole story another time, and that seemed to satisfy him for now.  
  
Liam leaned back, massaging his belly.  
  
“We’d better do presents before dessert,” he said. “I don’t think there’s room in here for gingerbread, even if it is my mum’s recipe.”  
  
“I’ll hand out presents!” Cora exclaimed, jumping up. She went around the room, giving each crewmember their gift. Vetra had given Liam a collection of over three hundred Turian movies on a datapad, complete with a bag of her favorite movie snack, graxen. Cora was given a small vegetable garden kit by Drack, who told her he got first dibs on tasting what she was able to grow on board the ship. Drack, unsurprisingly, was given a bottle of extra-strong ryncol from Gil, and the Krogan promised Aisling he wouldn’t share with Liam, no matter how much he begged.  
  
As they went around the room and got closer and closer to Jaal’s turn, Aisling’s stomach returned to its gymnastic routine. She wiped her sweaty palms on her pants under the table as he examined her little parcel.  
  
He unwrapped it carefully, peeling up the corners instead of ripping the paper, and he held it up, puzzling at it a little.  
  
“It’s… what is it?”

Liam laughed. “That’s an iPod!”  
  
“A what?”  
  
“It’s an old device from the Milky Way! They’re ancient.”  
  
“What does it do?” Jaal was turning it over in his hands, looking at it. The headphones dangled from it, swaying as he examined his gift.  
  
“It plays music,” Aisling said, her face slightly pink. “You put the headphones in your ears and it… plays music only you can hear.”  
  
“Ah,” Jaal said. “How, erm… how thoughtful. Who is it from? There’s no note.”  
  
“It’s from me,” she told him, going even redder. “There’s more to it than that, I’ll explain later.”  
  
“Oh,” Jaal said, now grinning broadly at her and cradling the iPod in his hands as though it was a fine treasure. “I’ll look forward to it.”  
  
There were now three presents left under the tree, and Aisling looked around at her crew. Everyone seemed to have their gift now. All except her. But there were still so many things left...

Cora picked up the remaining pile of presents in her arms and brought them all over to Aisling.  
  
“These,” she said with a smile, “are for you, Pathfinder.”  
  
“For me? _All_ of them?”  
  
Cora nodded.  
  
Aisling looked around suspiciously at all the smiling faces.  
  
“Why so many?”  
  
“We all chipped in,” said Gil, grinning. “Everyone.”  
  
“Oh, but you shouldn’t have… you didn’t have to…”  
  
“We _wanted_ to,” explained Liam. “Technically Suvi drew your name, but we all got together and decided that you deserved… well, _more_. You put all this together. You put all of _us_ together. You’re what made us all a family.”  
  
“You’re basically our den mother,” Gil said with a chuckle. “Merry Christmas, Mom.”  
  
Aisling laughed and blinked several times against the burning sensation behind her eyes.  
  
“You guys…”  
  
She began opening the small collection of gifts, uncovering a large and elaborate new enclosure for Mixtape, a turquoise scarf, and a tiny model of their very own Tempest for her collection.  
  
“The model was Kallo’s idea,” Suvi said, “And I was able to commission it and pick it up on the Nexus. That’s what I was hiding behind my back when you spotted me.”  
  
“I picked out the scarf,” said Cora, raising her hand.  
  
“And I was trying to buy that damn hamster house when you tried to come over and ruin Christmas for yourself,” said Drack, laughing.  
  
“I _knew_ you were up to something!” Aisling replied, waggling a finger and shaking her head with a grin. “You sneaks.”  
  
They rounded off the evening with Liam’s gingerbread, everyone feeling flushed and slightly tipsy from Suvi’s drinks. Kallo left first to go man the cockpit, and everyone else slowly trickled out of the meeting room to go enjoy their presents. Jaal kept shooting glances at Aisling, smiling The Smile at her whenever he caught her eye. By the time everyone else had trickled out of the room, she thought her heart must be close to exploding. It beat against her chest at hyperspeed as he walked over to sit next to her.  
  
“So,” he said, and the rum humming warmly through her veins mixed with the baritone purr of his voice made her feel suddenly lightheaded. “You mentioned there was… something else to this? How do I make it work?”  
  
Aisling held out her hand and turned the iPod on for him, the screen lighting up with a bright blue-white icon in the shape of an apple.  
  
“It’s not so much about the iPod,” she said, looking sheepish. “It’s just an antique I had in my music player collection. I have lots of different kinds, from different eras on Earth. We had so many ways to listen to songs. This was just the easiest to modify so I could make you a mixtape.”  
  
“A _Mixtape_?” Jaal asked, looking confused. “You… used it to clone your hamster?”  
  
Aisling laughed.  
  
“No,” she told him, shaking her head. “A mixtape is an old Earth term, from way back before _these_ things were even around. Music used to be recorded on long strips of special tape that were wound into cassettes you could play on special machines. People would record playlists onto these tapes for each other, a mix of songs that were important to them in some way.”  
  
“Ah,” said Jaal, understanding visibly dawning on him. “Mix. Tape.”  
  
“That’s what I named my hamster after,” she said. “because I love old music and all. Kind of silly, really. But this iPod has a digital mixtape on it for you. It’s all songs that sort of… remind me of _you_ , somehow.”  
  
She let Jaal look at the list of songs that had appeared on the screen, showing him how to scroll through the list and play them.  
  
“You should listen to it later,” she said, the sheepish expression finding its way back to her face. “I don’t think I can stand the anxiety if you do it in front of me.”  
  
Jaal chuckled, tucking the iPod into his pocket.  
  
“Fair enough,” he told her. He paused, digging around in his pocket. “I have something for you, as well.”  
  
Drawing his hand back out, he held it out to Aisling and dropped something smooth and heavy into her palm. Looking down, she saw a shiny black and white object, rather like an oblong polished stone, attached to a long strip of leather cord.  
  
“Oh, Jaal,” she said. “This is lovely. What mineral is it?”  
  
He smiled, taking it back from her and coming around to stand behind her, draping the cord over her shoulders.  
  
“It was made from an Earth rock I found in a shop on the Nexus, and a stone I picked up on Havarl,” he said, gently brushing Aisling’s hair off her neck as he fastened the cord together. His touch sent a pleasant shiver down her back. “They were melted down and swirled together, then shaped and polished. I added the cord myself. It represents everything that is different about us, but also all that we have in common.”  
  
He came back around to face her.  
  
“Did you know that Angarans are made of the same organic elements as humans?” he asked. “Oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and a handful of others. These rocks are made of many of the same things. Elements born of the stars when the universe was formed. And you--” he cupped her cheek and drew his thumb gently across her freckled skin-- “are the loveliest bit of star that has ever fallen from the sky.”

She could feel her cheeks getting warmer as he spoke.  
  
“Jaal, I… thank you so much,” she said. She looked up to meet his eyes, those impossibly blue orbs that looked like miniaturized galaxies and made her feel dizzy and weightless. “This is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever given me.”

“I am glad,” he said, giving her one last smile. “I look forward to listening to your mixtape.”  
  
He gently placed his lips on her forehead, giving her a light, soft kiss. He rose to leave and looked over his shoulder at her as he walked through the door.

  
“Good night, Aisling Ryder, my beautiful Stardust.”  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can listen to Ryder's playlist [here.](https://playmoss.com/en/christina-linville/playlist/stardust)


End file.
